Dear Yuletide Author Letter

[letterblade]

Dear Yuletide Author,

First and foremost, thank you! This is my first year actually doing Yuletide, so I have very little idea what I am doing; no doubt this is going to be a rather rambly and odd letter, so I apologize in advance. I am not particularly picky about any of my requests aside from a few stray Things I Don't Ship--though please don't take those as an indication against shipfic in general! I love fic, any good fic, anything from gen that cleaves to canon to wild tentacular smut of any gender combination. And I have no requirements for gen versus not-gen as far as Yuletide goes. (I'm sprinkling this letter with parenthetical comments about porn, because yes I like it, but you are in no way required to porn, never mind to delve into kink, though I like that too. I am kind of sorry in advance if you are a gen writer just because you have to wade through them tho.)

Generalizations first off...

Things I Like: Fic that feels like it exists in a larger context of the character's lives and the world, which is a rather vague and generalized thing, but little details of character and worldbuilding rock my world no matter the fic. Interesting ideas that engage with and expand the world and characters. Interesting prose (I do love experimental styles, but by no means require them, they are not everybody's strength.) Fic that fills in holes, brings characters together who never got to meet or interact much, develops things beyond what canon had a chance to cover. If it is your bag, kink that feels visceral and real.

Things I Don't Like: Entirely alternate universes (alternate continuities are great though), especially alpha/beta/omega BDSM universes. Seme/uke/top/bottom conventions (and role essentialism in general really.) Most crossovers. OOC madcap crack or fluff. Overt romanticism unless it's clearly called for in canon. Sexualized violent non-con, mpreg, guro, and cross-generational incest. A few particular ships noted in their fandoms (nothing against those who ship them! I just don't feel them at all.)

And now specific notes on my requests--which are less notes and more incoherent rambles of "here are like one million things you could do on this topic, you could do any of these or more than one of them or none of them, whatever floats your boat." SUPER-OPTIONAL LIKE ALL OPTIONAL DETAILS I just figured maybe it would give you somewhere to get started if you were looking for one, but if you don't need one, geronimo!

Cowboy Bebop
Ed

The Fabulous Future Adventures of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV Across Space and Time!!

#that's it #that's the request

Well okay, letters are for rambling, right? Ed!! Ed is ridiculous and fabulous and can do anything! Where does she go? What does she do? Is there a dog in her computer or a fish? (Is she following her fishie?) Does she run into the Bebop crew again somewhere down the road? Does she find her dad? Does she find friends? Does she hook up with some of her old friends who all grew up together like weird stray cats under the loving fist of a nun with a hose and go charging around the solar system together? Does she work for some sketchy syndicate and then realize they're sketchy and then fry all their computers? Does she change the world?

And what is she like once she's grown up? Slightly terrifying? Having stray cats of her own? (Earth girls are easy?) What would an adult Ed be like, ten, twenty years down the road? What kind of weird family would she make for herself, with her history of weird families?

tl:dr; I would love to see Ed growing up epic and bizarre and gently warping the universe around her because wtf even is Ed. But earth girls are easy, and so am I, if you do not feel the Ed, I would love to see pretty much any Bebop fic that isn't Spike/Faye.

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

So to expand first upon what I would most like to see: Sinbad and Kouen. The only two wielders of multiple djinns, ridiculously powerful magnificent bastards in opposing positions of world leadership, each seeking to conquer the globe for its own good in their own ways, who've already had one tense meeting of waving their dicks posturing at each other while shirtless simultaneously professing mutual respect, and might have another by the time the holidays roll around. The peacenik who's halfway fallen, who avoids battle at all cost but manipulates ruthlessly, who chooses his family and binds them close and uses them lovingly, who clearly hates warmongers; and the warlord who wants to save the world, who's idealistic and bloodthirsty in one, who respects his blood family and refuses to command them, who could well hate manipulators (especially given his stepmother.) They have such potential for an epic rivalry, the sort where they could either build each other up or destroy each other, depending upon where fate leads them; the sort that could be as ferociously sexual as your preferences desire.

But of course, they've only just begun to interact in canon. So there's a lot of potential for future speculation, if that is your bag. Do they become reluctant allies against Al-Thamen, perhaps building a strange friendship out of mutual respect while never forgetting their serious differences? Or do they keep a delicious honored-rival stalemate and constantly fail to kill each other in revealing ways? Or on the darker side--does Kouen manage to conquer Sindria, or do his armies break against the Seven Seas Alliance? What happens if he finds out about what Sinbad did to Kougyoku? (Well, to be fair, I'm working on that fic at the moment myself. >.>) Or what happens when the Kou Empire, as expansionist empires tend to do (especially when set up by Al-Thamen) starts to collapse under its own weight--is Kouen left to pick up the pieces, does he begin to curse his fate, does he have to swallow the humiliation of accepting Sinbad's benevolent meddling for his people's sake? What would each do with the other at his mercy? (I know I've mentioned above that I'm not usually keen on violent non-con, but I am sure into dub-con or bad decision sex of nearly any variety if that calls to you, that seems worth clarifying in the context of some of these potential power plays.) Really there just seems to be so much potential with these two and I'd love to see somebody exploring it in fic in whatever fashion.

But beyond that...if you made an Any offer for Magi and don't particularly feel the above, I honestly welcome pretty much any Magi fic that isn't Sinbad/Ja'far or Sinbad/Judar, from gen to decidedly not gen. (I am a lone outlier who reads Sin and Ja'far as platonic, and while I do assume Judar wants in the royal caftan in a violent fashion because lol, I do not read that as a requited or balanced rivalship in the least--that spot is for my Kouen feels, clearly. Well okay, I also don't know why Masrur/Sharrkan is a thing but if you can make it sing, go right ahead.) Magi is my soul fandom right now and I have a lot of feelings, and the rich world and characters have oodles of potential, especially with how referential it is to folklore and history. Aladdin and Yamuraiha dealing with the aftermath of the war in Magnostadt? Sinbad and Ja'far friendship fic? Masrur and Morgiana's excellent mentor/big sibling relationship? Various king candidates' relationships with their djinns? Alibaba's starry-eyed devotion to Sinbad that could well verge into crush territory? Aladdin's perspective on mindfucking Judar? Sinbad's relationships with his generals, any of them, all of them, household vessel assimilation feelings? Somebody finally shoving Alibaba and Morgiana's faces together because what are the chances of them getting around to it (and are you someone who can handle past sexual trauma respectfully and wants to go there, because Jamil existed and that has unfortunate implications and Alibaba has no clue and Mor and communicating have an understandably fraught relationship?) What does it say about Sharrkan that he's the household vessel of dominance and submission and wears a chain collar attached to his piercings and why is this canon so subliminally kinky? Who pulls Alibaba's leash? Just how bad are Hakuryuu's decisions, including with regards to Judar's skanky chest? I could go on, and be perfectly happy with any of those or more, I just want more Magi fic ok! Un-nominated characters also golden--as a particular note, the Kou princesses are fabulous even though they aren't on the list and I wish I'd gotten to Yuletide during nominations because they need more fic love.

tl:dr; all the Magi feels.

Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Ohtori Kanae

So my requests this year seem to be either "give me magnificent bastards trying to manhandle each other" or "tell me about the future life of this interesting lady who's short on screen time," except this is not nearly as fun as the future adventures of Ed. Ohtori Kanae, who we last saw dead-eyed on poisoned apples while her husband banged her mom. Where is her life going? I am kind of working under the assumption that you have not offered to write Utena lightly, because it is not a canon full of easy or safe material. >.> If you do not want to deal with sexual abuse recovery, which is really the meat of this request, consider this a general Utena request! With maybe some bonus shadowgirl interest, see the last paragraph. Because seriously, nobody should have to deal with Kanae's poisoned apples if they don't want to.

Onwards--I normally don't give a darn about tragedy versus happiness, but I think in this case it's more rewarding to go in a direction with ultimately some hope--even if it gets darker before the dawn, because who is the first person Akio would turn to as a fragile substitute Anthy? Bring out your post-series headcanons, bring out your abuse psychology and trauma recovery and reclaiming, bring out your princess/witch/rose bride feelings. What does it take for a sweet, loving girl to realize that Akio isn't the man of her dreams and make some upwards progress?

Does she get out of Ohtori somehow at some point after the end of the series; does she grow up, does she realize she's not a princess anymore, does she get in an accident and the hospital finds the drugs in her bloodstream, does somebody intervene and give her an arc remarkably similar to Anthy's, does she snap and prove that whatever crystal of malevolence Mikage found in her wasn't entirely illusory? Do either of her parents ever get an inkling of Akio's awfulness to her, and do they care--what is her family life like anyway, we know she's protective of her father given her anger at Anthy, does she realize Akio's to blame for that and that's what opens her eyes? Do she and Anthy meet somewhere years down the road and have tea and smiles that don't quite reach their eyes until Kanae cracks or Anthy quietly decides to inform her that they have more in common than they think? Do they scream at each other, or do they go form the quietly bitching about Akio club with Utena? (Well. Utena probably doesn't quietly bitch, but that is a different problem.) Is Anthy in fact the one to intervene, to venture back to Ohtori with her freed soul and power to pay it forward, all while painfully aware that she can't do anything at all if Kanae doesn't find it in herself to open her eyes and step away?

The usual disclaimer, of course, applies--if you do not feel the Kanae or do not wish to go to the icky places her life entails, I welcome any Utena fic that keeps with the feel of the series. Perhaps as a second specific request--I have a crazy little headcanon that the shadowgirls were girlfriends of Nemuro's hundred assistants, who died and became ghosts in the fire. Which is...slightly more cheerful. Or shadowgirls fic in general could be very interesting--how long have they been following Akio and Anthy around and narrating their antics? How far outside Ohtori can they go, given that we see them in the hospital with Juri at the end of Ruka's story--do they follow Utena? How much are they their own beings as opposed to artifacts of the projector and Ohtori's magic?

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (TV)

The Shitennou, man, the Shitennou. They are just such a glorious clusterfuck of beautiful immortal warriors with amnesia problems, complicated loyalty feelings, and overwhelming sexual tension. I like them all with each other! Or with Endymion and/or Mamoru, with Beryl in their twisted and fraught ways; I like Kunzite and Nephrite both with two very different Mercuries. I don't like Zoisite/Minako at all, and I don't see the manga Shitennou/Senshi pairings at all in the drama. So this is really a very open-ended request beyond a few don't-ship-thing caveats (and again, totes ok with gen!) And in a lot of cases here I cannot help but read in the kink myself,

Which means it's time for a list of questions. Though I have to admit that a lot of my interest lies in the Shitennou's relationships with other characters as well as each other, and even moreso in the ways their internal dynamics interact with their external relationships. But as I've said, just random lists of suggestions, feel free to ignore the ones that involve other characters if you just want to focus on the Shitennou themselves. Because it's not like there isn't plenty of material just there, especially over time as they each turn from the close-knit unit they loved and then try to turn back at the end. Within the four of them, that's perhaps what is most interesting to me--how they resolve their conflicts left over from the brainwashed hell of the events of the series, how they come to forgive each other once they all remember themselves and their pasts and know what they once were.

And beyond the unit...what about Zoisite's devotion to his Master, perhaps--just how D/s were Zoisite and Endymion (and Zoisite is capable of being implacably unyielding towards somebody who he doesn't choose to submit to, we see it with Beryl and Kunzite, this is a very deliberate choice of his)? Nephrite and Ami are just adorable--does he stick around after the Special Act, do they ever manage anything, does one of the other Shitennou need to step in as a Nephrite-to-human translator, how do they react to him having interest in a senshi given the fraught history? How does Kunzite react, given how he met Ami in the first place? Perhaps comparing the twisted power play entanglements of Kunzite, Dark Mercury, and Nephrite in the past to Nephrite and Ami's awkward feelings and Kunzite's even stranger feelings about what was in the present? Jadeite, holy shit Jadeite--I think in some ways he has one of the most interesting arcs--how does he handle the inner conflict of his divided loyalties? Does he keep it a secret, that he stayed with Beryl at the end, how does it weigh on him? Can Kunzite forgive him killing him?

But like I said, very open-ended, any of these or more than one of these or pretty much anything else would be awesome!